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I see two potential outcomes: 1.) Twitter becomes an echo chamber for the alt-right. 2.) Twitter dies.
by shanebellone 4y ago
I see two potential outcomes:
1.) Twitter becomes an echo chamber for the alt-right.
2.) Twitter dies.
- mhoad 4y agoYou just described the same thing twice.
- shanebellone 4y agoThat's a matter of perspective.
- mhoad 4y agoIt’s a matter of historical record that there are no profitable or successful social media companies that could be described as alt-right echo chambers. The only brands that want to advertise on those sites are scams.
- shanebellone 4y agoFox does alright.
- mhoad 4y agoI did say social media companies for the record which is what we are actually talking about here.
- shanebellone 4y agoFair. It's worth pointing out we have about 20 years of "historical record", and none have attempted to niche down. I would argue both crypto and gold could drive revenue for an alt-right social media platform.
- mhoad 4y agoMaybe “revenue” is masking the reality of the situation here. No alt right echo chamber is ever in a million years going to be able to provide a good return on investment for $44B. If they go down that path they WILL die which was my original point.
- shanebellone 4y agoEh, that almost feels like a strawman argument. Pre-Musk Twitter wasn't worth $44b either. By normal metrics, it only needs to be profitable to sustain. It might be more accurate to interpret Twitter as a luxury good (from Elon's perspective). Similar to how other billionaires build lavish yachts. With that being said, there is no argument for his purchase or subsequent actions being construed as a viable investment strategy. The whole debacle looks like child's tantrum.
- mhoad 4y agoIt’s not a strawman. I’m talking about very concrete facts. 1. There is not a single instance in the entire history of the internet of a profitable alt right social media website that anyone actually uses. 2. The price he paid was indeed so overvalued and has only dramatically dropped in value since then that they can already no longer pay their bills after just 7 weeks.
- shanebellone 4y agoYou are but it's ignoring other concrete facts. The concept of alt-right social media is ~2 years old. 1. Facebook took 5 years to become profitable. 2. Twitter took 12 years. 3. Instagram had no revenue before Facebook bought it.
- skinnymuch 4y agoGab is nearing age 6. Stormfront and chans with alt-right focus have been around longer than 2 years. Qanon began on 4chan over 5 years ago. Rumble is 9 years old at a $2B market cap with no profits in sight. Parler is over 4 years old and tried to sell itself by tricking Kanye West. Rumble and Gab should be profitable now if you brought up FB becoming profitable at 5. This is all before FB found it’s mobile ads focus and became the behemoth it is now.
- Zigurd 4y agoRight wing TV in the US stays afloat by being part of basic cable packages.
- mbg721 4y agoHow is "alt-right" different from general "right-wing"? Regardless, AM radio is probably the closest thing, although call-in shows are very low-tech as a form of "social media".
- mhoad 4y agoI don’t know.. probably more into school shootings and racism than usual? I didn’t pick the term, I was replying to a comment that used it. I was just trying to keep it consistent.
- mbg721 4y agoFair enough, but you have to realize that nobody calls themselves "alt-right" with the philosophy "Oh boy, more racism and school shootings is just what this country needs."
- mhoad 4y agoI’ve yet to see a single consistent principle from them to be fair. Reactionary is kind of their defining feature. I was more talking about the outcomes that tend to follow them around.
- mbg721 4y agoIf you summed up the American right as "We don't all agree what we want, but it's certainly not this. It was better before," I think most right-wingers would agree. "Reactionary" is thrown around as though all sweeping change is progress, and that's not necessarily true.
- mhoad 4y agoI feel like maybe you’re responding to an argument I’m not actually making. I don’t disagree with anything you just said in that post.
- gadders 4y agoWhy didn't it die when it was an echo chamber for the alt-left? Are you saying that the alt-left is more numerous, or more acceptable to advertisers?
- forgotusername6 4y agoWhat is the alt left?
- throwaway2729 4y agoDecent people
- gadders 4y ago
- shanebellone 4y agoI'm thankful stupid identifies itself.
- gadders 4y agoWe are indeed lucky.
- shanebellone 4y agoTouche.
- mcv 4y agoNYT isn't that left, is it? It always comes across to me as mildly conservative. Not Trump-stupid conservative, but definitely not far-left. (Mind you, I'm not a NYT reader, so I could be missing out on their left-wing content.) Twitter before Musk was certainly not a left-wing echo chamber. It had plenty of right-wingers, middle of the road jokes, corporate accounts, etc.
- 4y ago
- rsynnott 4y agoI think 1 basically implies 2; becoming Truth Social, only without the main attraction, won't pay Twitter's bills.
- mbg721 4y agoFor that to happen, it has to lose all its momentum, MySpace style. I don't see anything right now replacing it, which is why the journalist class is in such a state of impotent rage.